Hinrichs Mk4 Tdi...it has how many miles?

[hinrichs]

After just about a month of ownership, I figured its finally time to start a new build thread or whatever these end up being.

Lets catch up everyone who has not seen my last build. Here is the golf. It was cool. I never drove it. All I did was spend a lot of money on it. https://stanceworks.com/forums/showt...-your-mk3-back

IMG-3798 by minthinrich, on Flickr

Basically to really get it where I wanted I just couldn't justify the build anymore. I got a lot of "interesting" trade offers. I got this picture and info and was kind of interested but there kept being issues to see the car. I almost pulled the 2.0 to swap in the VR and keep the golf since I was getting annoyed with everyone.

IMG-4447 by minthinrich, on Flickr

Anyway I took my lunch break one day to meet the guy at the notary. I looked it over and decided to trade. Did I test drive the car before deciding? NOPE....why would we do that. First pic driving it home. Decided to keep the thing hanging from the rear-view.

IMG-4449 by minthinrich, on Flickr
65342053390--656E7951-197E-41B1-97E0-96F99F629040 by minthinrich, on Flickr[/SIZE][/FONT]

Within 5 minutes of getting the car home I remembered I had some pedal covers. Threw them on to make it mine haha.

65342399942--130EE2A0-249A-407A-8441-6678011A82FF by minthinrich, on Flickr

Fixing little issues happened the rest of the day. The guy said the ebrake never worked, and didnt know why. I pulled apart the center console, and imagine that.....they were never hooked up. So easy 5 min fix and we had a working e-brake.

IMG-4467 by minthinrich, on Flickr

Boost gauge never lit up was another thing I fixed. I traced the wires into the dash, and once again, never hooked up. I wired it in using an old diy and it worked perfectly. I did find in my old parts stash one of the best fitting and looking gauges on the market from years ago. I will rewrap it when I do the headliner and pillars. I still love the MK4 indigo colors.

IMG-4462 by minthinrich, on Flickr
65357443194--E956927F-F917-4557-A701-A50E62FA1845 by minthinrich, on Flickr

I also had to get rid of the light bars right away. I will use them on my riding mower, but they do not belong on the car. Took the car for a drive up to the pagoda to see how she really felt.

IMG-4488 by minthinrich, on Flickr

[mgpdoc]

Already modding since day 1, that is the spirit. Subscribed of course

[Buick40]

Sometimes you just gotta go with your gut. What year is it? Any mods from the previous owner? I've had two of these MKIV TDIs and they're great (maybe you have too?).

[hinrichs]

Already modding since day 1, that is the spirit. Subscribed of course

I just couldn't resist. Working from home now sure makes it boring and anything new is exciting.

Sometimes you just gotta go with your gut. What year is it? Any mods from the previous owner? I've had two of these MKIV TDIs and they're great (maybe you have too?).

I could have made out better on the trade, but the golf was more cool parts, and a junk shell. I will get into mods in here next. I have to say tho, I absolutely love the car already.



So lets go over what this car really is. Here is what was said to be done by the previous owner. I will mention parts then maintenance. 2003 in all its glory.

Mods/Parts-
-black housing headlights
-light bars
-3" kerma tdi exhaust w/ resonator
-stage 2 tune (might change more on this later)
- coilovers
- turbo
- 17" arietta wheels
- 17" long beach wheels

Maintenance items-
- control arms
- e-brake cables
- ball joints
- rear pads/rotors
- rear caliper
- brake master
- fluids
- coolant bubble

So the only real hesitation on the car was the miles. I mean I mentioned it in the title so I am sure someone has been wondering. She/He/It has 346,572 as of today typing this. I think I put close to 1k on it since I got it. I read enough reviews about cars hitting 6-700k so I am not scarred. I kind of really hope I can get the car to 500k.

This thing just hits me hard with nostalgia. I had a 2004.5 Gli years ago, which I now regret ever selling, that was my first real "build". The funny part is I wanted to TDI swap the Gli and keep it but I was no where near being ready or capable of swapping a motor.

DSC-0098 by minthinrich, on Flickr

[hinrichs]

So the weekend I got the car I headed off to the junkyard to see what I could find for the car. I was on a mission for fenders but ended up with some other parts I didnt think about at first.

Driver fender was the worst. PO covered the hole with a sticker, which really wouldnt have been bad if I didnt touch it. Sucks how many MK3/4 get ruined from fender liners.

65368014104--26E080A2-FEF9-464C-9B44-5499DE45A4E6 by minthinrich, on Flickr

Managed to find a half decent fender, but it has a minor dent in the front corer which I will massage out eventually.

IMG-4636 by minthinrich, on Flickr

I also ended up getting the lower under dash plastic panel, ash tray with door, and rear trunk mat. I know it looks stupid but my "fix on the center console works till I swap to all black or find another grey one. Trunk mat just annoyed me for being wavy. So $40 for everything including the fender, I was happy.

IMG-4491 by minthinrich, on Flickr
IMG-4489 by minthinrich, on Flickr
IMG-4490 by minthinrich, on Flickr

Next post will be mods. I ordered a bunch of goodies.

[cblock406]

Nice, what are the plans for this one? Your black one looked proper!

[SebastienPeek]

Let's go! #burnallthemk4s

[hinrichs]

So after finally looking through the trunk and finding the coilover wrenches, I made an order. Nothing against what was on the car, and honestly they rode kinda good for being Maxpeedingrod brand. The car didnt come with rear perches and I wanted the adjustability. Sold the used coils for $74 so I was happy. I ended up ordering some solowerk s1. If I only would have known I was getting this car I could have gotten them cheaper at the Loe Show. Oh well. Also decided this time around to order the ECS install kit. I am usually cheap, but having all new bolts was kind of cool.

IMG-4586 by minthinrich, on Flickr
IMG-4587 by minthinrich, on Flickr'
IMG-4588 by minthinrich, on Flickr

Install was a breeze, car sits at a decent height. I think it did settle a little after but need to re-adjust everything. I also have the helpers and everything in.

IMG-4589 by minthinrich, on Flickr

[SebastienPeek]

Looking a lot better closer to the ground, what's next on the list?!

[hinrichs]

Next up was the lighting of the car. As you might have noticed I threw in amber fender markers. The stock clear ones came apart in pieces just putting new bulbs in. Also ended up swapping in some oem euro tails, which look a lot better to me. Hard to beat them at $79 new. I did wire up the rear fog as well. I ordered new bumper markers because guess what, they also fell apart quick. I do want to order a euro rubstrip tho.

IMG-4507 by minthinrich, on Flickr
IMG-4509 by minthinrich, on Flickr

Onto the headlights. The "black housing" ones were not terrible but when I tried to get the fog lights to work I noticed a lot of issues. Missing parts and just overall build is a joke. I ended up getting my friends vx-tuning ecodes. I was going to order the exact set I wanted (amber turns) but didnt want to wait a few weeks since I am really driving this car a lot. He decided to sell his brand new with no led bulbs. I still want to get their projectors, but I didnt want to wait till next spring for those.

IMG-4606 by minthinrich, on Flickr
IMG-4607 by minthinrich, on Flickr

[mgpdoc]

This looks cleaner and cleaner by the day.
Maybe go for an engine wash and detail to start with a clean canvas. It helps a lot i think.

[gruz]

Funny how here in the UK we're always after US parts like the rubstrips, markers, taillights etc and you US guys are after what we have

I've got the same but with a weak 1.6 16v, reflex silver too!

[hinrichs]

This looks cleaner and cleaner by the day.
Maybe go for an engine wash and detail to start with a clean canvas. It helps a lot i think.

I will have to try and wash the bay. I have never done it before since I was always nervous of ruining it somehow. I do need to source an engine cover since its missing and really annoys me.

Funny how here in the UK we're always after US parts like the rubstrips, markers, taillights etc and you US guys are after what we have

I've got the same but with a weak 1.6 16v, reflex silver too!

You should check out my last build. I went so far as wanting your parts I did a rhd swap. I would love to find some texture rubstrips for this and a 4motion lip. Both seem almost impossible right now.


So the next update.....wheels.

I ended up picking up some Brock B6 locally 17x8.5 and 17x10. Perfect period wheels for the car. I am really on the fence now about them however.

65436457595--ED05DF76-D7CD-45D6-AD68-9E5C6189094A by minthinrich, on Flickr

[gruz]

I would love to find some texture rubstrips for this and a 4motion lip. Both seem almost impossible right now.

If you can't find any rubstrips, make your own! Bedliner spray of sorts works a treat usually.

I liked the mk3 build too, good bit of dedication on the conversion!

[hinrichs]

So the other day I finally decided to dig into why the heat sucks. The car also does not have AC, but I will investigate that sometime this winter. I did pick up an o-ring kit to try and seal it. Anyway I went about pulling half of the interior to get to the heater flaps. To no surprise there was like 10% of the foam left. Ordered 2 kits from DSP because I hid the 1 from myself too well haha. Anyway here is the install...of course the first set was black and looked cooler. Anyway it works. Oh and I did find the first kit I ordered. It was inside my CD case in the jetta. Yup.

IMG-4655 by minthinrich, on Flickr
IMG-4656 by minthinrich, on Flickr

Finally gave it a real bath in prep for a full polish and wax.

IMG-4666 by minthinrich, on Flickr

Bought some super expensive $20 mud flaps on amazon. I had oem ones before years ago and kinda liked them. I am sure they wont last long. The front fits damn good for the price. The rear kinda sucks.

IMG-4709 by minthinrich, on Flickr
IMG-4708 by minthinrich, on Flickr